Glasgow's Jane Eyre

Two reviews of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre appear today in the British press. The reason is the Glasgow performances of the current English tour of this revival presented by the Shared Experience Company. The next stop will be London,Trafalgar Studios, Mon 1 to Fri 12 May.

The first one is published in The Herald and is quite positive (although Jane Eyre's enthusiast Brontëana is not convinced at all, read her post)

A memory unsoiled is an exquisite treasure," muses the intolerable Mr Rochester of his "poor and obscure" Jane Eyre. In a highly stylised adaptation of the story, English-based Shared Experience skilfully executes a performance both physical and rooted in the text, heavily layered with symbolism and Bronte's themes of oppression and despair. (...)

This is a powerful production and not just in terms of the plotline and character development. Polly Teale and her creative team have masterminded an adaptation which works closely with the original narrative and characterisation but stays contemporary and relevant to 21st-century audiences in execution. (Louisa McEwan)

The second one appears in The Scotsman

Polly Teale's stage version of the novel for Shared Experience is as big, brave and challenging an adaptation as you are ever likely to see. At almost three hours long, accompanied by a sombre but beautiful live cello score by Peter Salem, it gives full weight to every twist and turn of Brontë's story. If anything, Teale tends to push the symbolic dimension too hard. Jane is accompanied from the start by a vivid, dark-skinned, sensual and rebellious version of herself in a red dress, who gradually transforms into the famous madwoman in the attic, and there's something 0 too literal and insistent about this implied presence of an "other Jane".

As Jane, though, Monica Dolan succeeds triumphantly in overcoming any problems this creates, giving us a strange, twitchy heroine whose human dignity and integrity carry her through the harshest of ordeals to one of the most complex and hard-won happy endings ever. (Joyce MacMillan)

Do you want to listen to what Monica Dolan herself thinks about her role? You can do it, just click here (real player needed). Or even to Polly Teale? Well, just try this other link, where you can listen to a discussion between Paula Rego, Polly Teale and Michael Berkeley about how Jane Eyre can be approached from very different perspectives. (Incidentally here you can find Polly Teale talking about her more recent play Brontë).

All the audio links are courtesy of the BBC.

Categories: Theatre, Jane_Eyre